Maintenance Contracts

I highly recommend charging either per minute or per quarter-hour. I’ve never had anyone turn me down because of it, I’m guaranteed (unless the client is a total sleaze) to be compensated for my time, and the terms are quite clear to the client.

If I work for an hour, I get paid for an hour’s worth of work. If I spend five minutes making an adjustment the next day, I get paid for an extra five minute’s worth of work.

Hmm that could be a possibility, although I’m not sure they would like such small portions of time. Would you start such a contract right after delivery and acceptance of the site, or do you have a grace period?

Most of my work is diagnostic, troubleshooting, customization, and other technical items, so most of my contracts are short-term.

Typically, we agree upon a per minute price, then after receiving all of the necessary info, I send an “I’m going to start the clock now at 3:53 AM,” email and immediately begin work.

When I’m done, I send an email with “The project is complete and the time is 4:25 AM, which brings us to a total of $. Is there anything else you’d like me to do?”

If the answer is yes, then we just start the clock again. If the answer is no, I send over the invoice.

Ah ok i see how that makes sense in your case. In my case the projects tend to be bigger (full websites) so minute by minute approaches are not so ideal.

I was thinking of a retainer for example, but wanted to know how other developers are working in this regard as well, so as not to make any blind guesses.

I do have a friend who does larger flat-rate contracts followed by a per minute rate for post-contract adjustments (with a negotiable flat rate contract for more time-consuming adjustments).